


Cost

by Walutahanga



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Exile, F/M, Forbidden Love, Friendship, Love, Sacrifice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-26
Updated: 2014-11-26
Packaged: 2018-02-27 02:33:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2675678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Walutahanga/pseuds/Walutahanga
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even if Kili and Tauriel did manage to be together, it wouldn't be without cost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cost

**Author's Note:**

> I was skeptical of Tauriel at first, let alone Kili/Tauriel, then the actors completely won me over with their sweet, funny chemistry. Curse them. Now I'm invested and we all know how this is going to end...

It takes Tauriel three months to talk Legolas into it.

He vehemently refuses at first – “Never ask me such a thing again” – and expresses horror that she could even consider such an option.

“It cannot be worth it, _mellon_ ,” he says, trying to reason with her. “Consider what you are doing it for; the dwarf will only live a few hundred years at most, all them underground, amongst people who despise our kind. And when he dies, taking your heart with him, you will fade. What is that, weighed against thousands of years spent under starlight and tree-song?”

“It is what I want,” she repeats steadily as she always does.

“I will not do it. I will not help you pay a terrible price for such a worthless prize.”

He weakens, though, under her repeated requests. For Legolas loves her, though her heart lies elsewhere, and he would see her happy even if his father would prefer to spite Erebor by seeing Tauriel and her lover suffer apart. _That_ much is certain. Thranduil has absolutely refused to honorably release Tauriel from her vows of loyalty to Mirkwood.

“To marry an elf from another realm certainly,” he’d said from his throne, eyes flashing with disgust. “Or even perhaps a man if he were worthy, but not a dwarf and certainly never the line of Thorin. You shame your heritage by even speaking of it.”

Even if she is only a Silvan elf, he is no more willing to release any of his people to Thorin’s line than Thorin was to release any of his treasure to the elves when the gold sickness was upon him. Thranduil is just as much a miser, in his own way.

But where the father is cold, the son is warm and Legolas eventually reluctantly accedes.

They ride out to the edge of Mirkwood, where a party of dwarves waits. Kili is among them, and his face lights up when he sees Tauriel. She hopes he has the sense not to interfere with what comes next; she had only told him that she had found a way that they might be together, not what it would cost.

“You came,” he says breathlessly, nudging his pony forward as she and Legolas dismount.

“You doubted me?” She squeezes Kili’s hand, reminding herself of all the reasons she is doing this, to steady herself in her chosen path. His flesh is warm compared to hers, making her think of forges and the warm belly of the earth. Her new home, where she must find new stars to guide her. “Do not interfere,” she tells him. “This is of my own choosing. It is necessary.”

He frowns, puzzled and faintly alarmed.

“What–”

“Do not interfere,” she repeats, and lets go of his hand to return to Legolas. Her friend of centuries looks at her with clear blue eyes.

“You are certain?” He says. “Absolutely certain this is what you want? It is not too late to change your mind.”

“I am certain.” And she is.

Legolas nods, expression turning distant and grim.

“Your bow then.”

She unhooks the bow from her shoulder and holds it out. His hands caress the delicate etchings that she’d spent years designing and carving into the wood. Then he grips it firmly in both hands and snaps it over one knee.

Despite herself, the sound makes her flinch.

“I am Prince Legolas,” he says. “Of Thranduil’s lineage. As is my right, I name your vows forsaken and cast you out from Mirkwood.”

There’s a faint noise of protest from Kili behind her, but he manages to restrain himself.

“You shall have no place among us, and your name shall not be sung,” Legolas continues relentlessly. “This shunning now spoken cannot be undone, not even by another of royal blood. Do you understand?”

“I understand.”

“Then turn.”

She turns to face the dwarves, looking past them at the mountains where her new home would be. Kili is staring, eyes wide and angry as Legolas gathers up Tauriel’s hair. He is too gentle when he draws his knife through it; all others who have faced the same disgrace have had blood on their scalp afterwards. But all that falls from Legolas’ hand is long red hair. The remainder tickles at Tauriel’s neck, the shortest she’s had it since childhood.

It is appropriate, she decides, when starting a new life.

“Face me,” Legolas says, and she turns. His blue eyes are filled with suppressed pain, and she knows this is the hardest part for him, the last part of the ritual to seal her disgrace and her freedom.

“Do it,” she whispers, and he grits his jaw and backhands her.

She’s taken worse, but it’s still hard enough to make her stagger, to make her cheek go numb then hot. Her eyes, she is glad to note, remain dry.

“That’s enough,” Kili says sharply. “That’s _enough_ , you elf-bastard.”

Legolas is still looking at Tauriel. Though she was the one struck, his eyes are bright with unshed tears.

“The ritual is done,” he says. “And I hope you’ll be worth it, dwarf, though I doubt it.”

He remounts his horse and turns back to Mirkwood, taking Tauriel’s horse with him. Tauriel does not call after him, and he does not say good-bye. She is shunned now; it is not her right to speak to him any longer.

“Tauriel.” Kili urges his pony closer. “Tauriel, are you alright?” His hand touches her shoulder tentatively.

“No,” she says honestly. She captures his hand, holds it. “But I will be.”

Kili searches her face, seeking the truth of those words and, finding it, nods. His fingers brush her jaw, careful of the bruising.

“He shunned you, for loving me?”

“I asked him to do it. He did not want to, but he agreed in the end.”

“There wasn’t a way to release you without disgracing you?”

“Only Thranduil could release me honourably from my vows. But any member of the royal family may proclaim an elf outcast. It was the only way.”

Kili looks shamed and saddened, and she wants to tell him that it is not his fault. Had she wanted to, she could have stayed in the sanctuary of Mirkwood all her life. Perhaps even let herself fall in love with Legolas eventually; Thranduil might yet have changed his mind about his son courting a Silvan elf if Legolas prevailed upon him long enough.

But it is not just about a choice between two men, or even two races. In Erebor or wherever she and Kili settle themselves, Tauriel will help rebuild a people, will be one more bow raised against the coming shadow.  In Mirkwood, she will forever be frozen in time, just another of a people too scared to look beyond their own borders to take part in the world. With Kili she would be alive. With Legolas she would not be.

And that is how she knows this is the right decision.

“Well,” Kili says finally. “Good thing I brought a horse. You’re a little too tall for the pony, much as I’d like to ride double with you.” His wink makes her smile and she leans in to kiss him. It feels different with her hair short, his broad fingers brushing the nape of a neck that hasn’t been bare to the sun in six hundred years.

She will get used to it.


End file.
